


Golden, Like a Smile

by lottare (anexorcist)



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: M/M, One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-13
Updated: 2008-03-13
Packaged: 2017-12-04 15:50:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/712427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anexorcist/pseuds/lottare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's hard to notice who's coming and going when you're blinded by the sun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Golden, Like a Smile

Gold. It's all he can see in the glow of the afternoon sun. The sky is tinged in orange and red and gold. And then there's that man with the golden hair and the glowing smile, the same smile from when they were children, but different.

It's stronger, more mature, and maybe even just a little seductive, what with the way he's standing there, standing in the sun, hip quirked to one side. Standing confident and not at all like the child he used to be, the person he was before he had a  _famiglia_  of his own to take care of.

Squalo would never admit it, but he's jealous. No, not jealous. Squalo can't be - won't be - jealous because he's perfectly fine where he is. All the choices he's made up until now were all made by his own free will.

He's just really pissed off.

Yeah, that's right, he's  _pissed off_.

It annoys him, the way that smile never falters. It's like this boy - no, they're  _men_  now, they've grown up and they haven't been boys in a long time - it's like this  _man_  in front of him knows what he's done. But the smile still doesn't change.

When the sun starts setting in the horizon and the shadows get ready to creep out of their alleys and onto the open streets, Squalo turns. And he walks away, leaving that smile, rejecting the warm embrace that could be his right now.

And it's cold. But that's okay, because he's got the Varia now, he's got Xanxus. He'd much rather follow the rage and suffer through the beatings than fall for that charming smile from the golden-haired man who's always standing there with open arms.

Once he stops moving, once he takes a break from his fast-paced life even for a moment, he'll lose his momentum, his speed. He'll go falling, tumbling, twisting, turning into God knows where.

And then he'll be eaten alive.

(It's a shark-eat-shark world out there.)

But stupid, stupid Squalo doesn't even understand that if he falls, that golden smile - the one that's there for him,  _always_ , only  _him_ , only  _Squalo's_  - will catch him.

No, it's more like he's afraid. He's afraid that after he's caught, he won't ever be free again. A shark, that's what he is, a shark. Sharks are vicious and wild and  _free_.

Squalo won't let anything - or anyone - take that away from him.

But maybe Squalo really is stupid. Hit his head one too many times.

He's going home, to the Varia, and with his back turned, walking away from a brighter future, Squalo's too blind to notice the brilliant, shining, golden smile hadn't been there since they were children.


End file.
